Vas Ist Das Hybrid?
Posted on | March 30, 2007
Business Week sorts out just how Germany fell behind in hybrid auto production.
…The original plan was to introduce hybrid versions of three SUVs: the VW Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne. But that deadline has now proved to be unrealistic. VW will unveil its first hybrids next year, but they will not be available for sale by then. Wolfgang Dürheimer, who heads the research and development division at Porsche, has revised the predicted rollout to a vague-sounding “end of the decade.”
The company has barely managed to come up with prototypes of the first construction stage, which suggests that actual production would not begin for at least another two years. System supplier Bosch has developed a power supply unit that can handle high-voltage current of up to 300 ampere, but it takes up most of the trunk. “Of course, it still leaves much to be desired,” says Dürheimer, promising that the size of the wiring system will soon be reduced.
The biggest problem lies in the relatively crude drive train the German engineers have chosen. While Toyota uses a complicated engine-gearbox combination with two electric power units, the VW/Porsche system features only one electric motor between the internal combustion engine and the gearbox. This motor has to serve multiple purposes: acting as a generator and supplying the braking energy to the battery, powering the vehicle on its own when only the electric motor is operating and serving as a starter for the combustion engine…
Never mind Detroit’s lag in fuel efficiency.
